The Holidays!

 We have had some issues with our laptop so I am a little behind on my blog posts for the holidays.  I decided to just put it all in one post!  

 One of my favorite holiday traditions is the festival of lights. 

 I love the Christmas tree park!

 Even though it started to rain everyone was a trooper and smiled through it for me.

 My favorite little elves!

 SANTA!  Oliver hopped up on his lap and wanted to ask him 3 questions.  1.  Am I on the nice list?, 2. Can my Mom have diamond earrings?, & 3. Can I have a Cozmo robot?

 Komo Selfie!

 My favorite little man.

 My best girl!

 The show was awesome and we had a great time!!!

 We had another wonderful Christmas Eve dinner here at our house.

 The kids loved playing with our cousins and their new toys!

 So fun having everyone together!

Love these people!

 Loved having some new faces around the table!

 Dinner was delicious!

 Before dinner, we had a nice lunch with the Cappellis and we had some special visitors!

 Santa and Mrs. Claus came!!!!

 We all loved seeing them!

 The Cappellis and the Clauses!

 Santa and Mrs. Claus read us some great Christmas stories!

 The kids loved listening to them!

 Giada was on the good list.

 And so was Nicholas after he finally worked up the courage to sit on the big guy's lap!

Oliver had no problem hopping on the big guy's lap!

 Then before you know it, it was CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!!  The kids waited so patiently while Daddy and I made our coffee and got the fire going!

Then it was time for PRESENTS!!!!!

 Oliver was super pumped about his Hatchimal!!!

 It was a big surprise from Santa!

 He was also pretty pumped with this Cozmo robot!

 Claire was thrilled with her Chrome book from Santa!

 And all of the accessories that go with it!

We all had a blast playing with Cozmo!

And getting the Hatchimal to hatch!

After playing with all of our toys (and cleaning up all morning) we headed to Auntie Rose's for a delicious dinner and some fun with GG!

Christmas 2016 was another amazing holiday filled with family, friends (who are like family), lots of laughs, and much love!!!  Although, I am sad it is over I can't wait to see what is next on this crazy adventure!

Polar Express

Yesterday was one of my most favorite traditions ever!  I don't care that I get all stressed out right before we leave and holler at everyone, I don't care that we had to take a later train, I don't care that the train left late, I don't care that we ate a super late dinner, I don't care about any of it.  I loved it!  

I loved that even though the train was a little late the kids didn't care.

I loved being with my sisters!

I loved wearing all of my holiday gear with my bestie Jessica!

I love that my parents came up with tradition 6 years ago. 

And I love that my mother bought her sweater at Tops.

And I love my Mom!

Even if I do get grumpy with her sometimes, she knows that I still love her the mostest.

I love that these two nerds always make it so fun for the kids!

I love that these two are still besties after all these years!

I love everyone gabbing away on the train!

 I love that even though Camden wasn't feeling well he was still adorable as ever!

 I love all these kids.

I love everyone's Santa's hats!

I love that my Dad worms his way into every picture.

And I love the Grinch in the background!

I love these people.

And I love these guys too.

I REALLY loved the reindeer!!!!!  They were my favorite part!

I love these guys!

I really love that the Grinch laughed a few times too!

I love waiting in the super long freezing line!  I love that EVERY year Oliver complains about how cold he is as if he may die.

I love that my Dad fools around every year when I try to take this picture and I have to say, "COME ON DAD!"  

I love these people!  I loved watching Harper dance around with excitement over everything at the Polar Express!

I love that my family is agreeable with 78,000 pictures that I make them take.

Oh and by the way Santa, if you are listening I would love a sleigh like this for my Christmas photo shoots next year.

I love that Nick smiled nice for this picture.

I love that Harper got on the sleigh!

 I love this memory ;)

I love that my kids were so excited to see Santa.  And I love how polite they were when it was their turn!!

I love this picture.

I love that Nick did not smile nice for this picture!

**I do not however love that I did not get pictures of Owen, Kayden, and Camden with Santa!!!**

I love that Theo's restaurant stayed open late JUST FOR US so that we could finish out our Christmas Tradition!  I love that even though the whole staff stayed on and kept the restaurant open for an extra two hours they gave us the best service ever.  I love that they gave the kids t-shirts and coloring books!

So overall, I love Polar Express day.  I even love the last minute "do we have everything" freak out I do before we leave the house.  I love it all!  I am already looking forward to next year!

TEXAS!!!!

Two weekends ago Mark and I spent the weekend in Texas celebrating his cousin Bill's wedding!  We had an amazing time!! Mark is really nervous to fly but I love it!  Needless to say, flying together is interesting but we had a great time!

In between all of the wedding festivities we still managed to squeeze in some site seeing!  We had a great time at the Capitol building!

And a delicious lunch.

We were even able to witness the unveiling of a new black history monument!

 The weather was perfect and the location was amazing!

The wedding was amazing!  Everything about it was perfect!

We had a blast getting all fancy!

And of course, I had my favorite wedding date with me.

It was a great weekend and we were so happy to be a part of a such a beautiful wedding!

Congratulations Katie and Bill!!!

Thanksgiving!

Since I am so behind on my blogging I keep waiting to catch up but while I have been waiting, I have been missing so much!  So I decided to just post what I have for now and I will catch up later!  

So Thanksgiving is already over but we had a great time celebrating this year!

 I made sure that this year I got everyone together to take a group picture!  It wasn't easy but...

 we got it done!! I love this crazy crew!

 I even made sure that we got a family shot!

 My favorites!

 So glad that Uncle Johnny could stop by on his dinner break!

I love these two turkeys.

I am so thankful for this bunch. 

So don't mess with us!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!